If they won't let the working group close, maybe we should try to do
something. Actually, I don't think the WG needs to remain officially
open for this, but...
Under RFC 2026:
A specification for which significant implementation and successful
operational experience has been obtained may be elevated to the
Internet Standard level. An Internet Standard (which may simply be
referred to as a Standard) is characterized by a high degree of
technical maturity and by a generally held belief that the specified
protocol or service provides significant benefit to the Internet
community.
A specification that reaches the status of Standard is assigned a
number in the STD series while retaining its RFC number.
and
A specification shall remain at the Draft Standard level for at least
four (4) months, or until at least one IETF meeting has occurred,
whichever comes later.
RFC 2616 was published June 1999, so it's been 4 months. We only
have a few errata. RFC 2616 was pretty stable for over a year.
There is significant implementation and successful operational
experience for most of HTTP & HTTP-AUTH, although a few corners
of the specs might need a little more baking.
We might want to do another round on the implementation
reports, and try to get some finer granularity of reporting.
Last time we enumerated every section, but I think we might want
to look more carefully at every MUST, SHOULD, and MAY to see
if there's both implementation and successful operational
experience.
What's a reasonable schedule for advancement to "Standard"?
I'm thinking on the 6-month timeframe. March 2000.
in lunacy,
Larry
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